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Who Is This Hornswoggler?

Andrew Wheeler is a Vassar alum, class of 1990. He spent 16 years as a bookclub editor (mostly for the Science Fiction Book Club), and then moved into marketing. He marketed books and related products to accountants for Wiley for eight years, and now works for Thomson Reuters as Senior Marketer for Corporate Counsel. He was a judge for the 2005 World Fantasy Awards and the 2008 Eisner Awards. He also reviewed a book a day for a year twice. He lives with The Wife and two mostly tame sons (Thing One, born 1998; and Thing Two, born 2000) at an unspecified location in suburban New Jersey. He has been known to drive a minivan, and nearly all of his writings are best read in a tone of bemused sarcasm. Antick Musings’s manifesto is here. All opinions expressed here are entirely and purely those of Andrew Wheeler, and no one else.

Saturday, June 02, 2012

The lingering memory of my year of blogging for the SFBC -- which ended five years ago, so I really should be over it by this point -- still compels me to post SFnal awards, even when I do so far too late to benefit anyone. What can I say? I'm a flawed person.

Analog and Asimov's Reader's Awards

The same weekend as the Nebulas (suddenly suspicious -- did I blog about the Nebulas? Yes, I did!), the editors of Asimov's and Analog announced the winners of their respective reader polls for the most popular features of the past year:

Analog’s Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards:

Best Novella: “With Unclean Hands” by Adam-Troy Castro (11/11)

Best Novelette (Tie):

“Jak and the Beanstalk” by Richard A. Lovett (7-8/11)

“Betty Knox and Dictionary Jones in the Mystery of the Missing Teenage Anachronisms” by John G. Hemry (3/11)

Best Short Story: “Julie is Three” by Craig DeLancey (3/11)

Best Fact: “Smart SETI” by Gregory and James Benford (4/11)

Best Cover: December 2011 (for “Ray of Light”) by Bob Eggleton

Asimov’s Readers’ Awards are:

Best Novella: “The Man Who Bridged the Mist” by Kij Johnson (10-11/11)

Note that Analog readers are scientists, carefully weighing the validity of each piece in their "Analytical Laboratory," while Asimov's readers just vote for stuff they like.

(also via SF Signal -- you really should read them, and get this stuff quicker)

Sturgeon and Campbell Finalists

Finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards were also announced around Nebula time. These are juried awards for the best SF (generally interpreted broadly) story and novel of the prior year, and this year's nominees are:

Sturgeon:

Charlie Jane Anders, "Six Months, Three Days," Tor.com, June

Paul Cornell, "The Copenhagen Interpretation," Asimov's, July

Yoon Ha Lee, "Ghostweight," Clarkesworld, January

Kij Johnson, "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," Asimov's, Oct / Nov (Note: removed from consideration because Johnson is a Sturgeon juror, though it still appears on the official list of nominees.)

Jake Kerr, "The Old Equations," Lightspeed, July

Ken Liu, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary," Panverse Three

Ken Liu, "The Paper Menagerie," F&SF, March / April

Paul McAuley, "The Choice," Asimov's, Dec / Jan

Catherynne M. Valente, "Silently and Very Fast," Clarkesworld, October

Sixteen (named) people nominated for the Sturgeon, many of them the editors of the short-fiction venues of the field. My eyebrow is cocked as I type this, but I really don't know the process. I'm also surprised to see a story by a juror appear on the shortlist, even though it has a note saying it was removed from consideration.

Both awards will be given out during the Campbell Conference in early July.

Compton Crook Award

This award goes to the new SF author of the best novel of the prior year -- not to the book itself, but to the author. (It's also not quite clear if it has to be a first novel, or if newness persists in a writer for some extended period.)